The last day of the year...

...already.

Enough said.

How can I write about an entire year?  List all the major events I've been to?  Look at my calendar (still amnesia) and check out those days I highlighted?  Summarise each month, maybe, or as some other clever bloggers with large cameras have done:  collect my favourite photos of the year and show you all.

Actually, the latter is what I was about to do, but then I jumped on Picasa and noticed a collection of my absolute favourite photos ever.  They're some of my most recent photos, taken this month...115 photos of the same thing...

2011 is the year this little person made her entrance on our planet.  She's my honorary niece and my best memory of 2011, so her slightly blurry photos (such a wriggler she is!) will mark 2011 on the Mouse Files.

A new little life is one of the most precious things ever.  Aria Heaven's birth date means 2011 will always be celebrated by those around her.

{and to her real aunty who reads this blog - give the little pumpkin a big kiss for me!}

I'd better stop before I start gushing and gurgling like someone possessed by the cute baby bug.  Major self-control happening right now!

Here's to another year of blogging sporadically and taking slightly blurry photos with my very large camera!

Thank you SO much for reading - it means the world to me!

WWW: Whimsy

I couldn't resist a new WWW after babysitting on Monday.

Just for the record, I'm still ingesting new and scary sociological vocabulary each day which means this WWW is not going to be very serious.  Or relevant.  Or literary.

Whimsy {n} /ˈ(h)wimzē/
Playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humour

I've always liked the word 'whimsy' because it sounds like its meaning.  I think there is a technical grammar term for that which I learnt pre-university and then promptly forgot.  (I promptly forgot a lot of pre-university education...especially anything mathematical or logical.  I'm not too worried about that, however, since I have seemed to retain my ability to read and write which is the main thing.  And I also remember how to make chrysanthemums turn blue and red overnight using food dye.)

There are some things which you get to learn before you even hit the educational institutions.  But only if you have a babysitter.

WWW: Vim

I think I missed a word.  Last week...  whoops.

Trust me, I was surrounded by lots of words all week.  Essay words, research words, words about Australian history and Beowulf words [see last post if that seemed like a particularly random thing to say].

I finished Beowulf by the way.  It was long and tedious, but mostly worth it.  Maybe I'll review it someday to make sure it all sunk in nice and deep into the literary consciousness of my brain.

Today I began a new subject with Open Universities Australia.  It's all about popular culture.

I like to call it pop culture.  Hopefully I'll work out what pop culture actually is in the next few weeks.

Moving right along...

Today was Monday and on Mondays I babysit two little boys.  You can read all about the way it goes here.

Apparently little boys like these sorts of things:

John Deere toy tractor.

It has peddles, so the little boy can propel himself along...theoretically.

Confessions: Play Dough and Pancakes

Who invented play dough?

And who invented pancakes?

Legendary!

Today I babysat two little boys.  It's a regular thing, so no nasty shocks or unexpected surprises to share.  I always arrive prepared for mud, dirt, slime, food on the floor, food on the furniture, food in my shoes...

smelly nappies...

grubby fingers in my hair...

yelling noises in my ear...

fingerprints on my glasses...

quivering biceps... ["ok, time to walk.  Can't you walk now?  Please walk!  I'm putting you down NOW."]

Ah yes, it is good.  Why?